F1's Golden Age

When unfettered innovation was king.

Grand Prix racing came of age in the 1970s. It opened with Summer of Love-inspired romanticism and drew to a close as frighteningly fast ground-effect cars brought tangible fear to the paddock. The drivers consumed stimulants and women of questionable virtue, most corners were potentially lethal, and technology and creativity went unchecked. It was F1's golden era, and it will never be seen again. Here are three reasons it was the best of times.

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Rubber is racin': Seventies Grand Prix contests were part road racing and part drifting, and almost all of that was thanks to the rubber. Before the advent of serious downforce, the tires' cartoonish aspect ratio allowed sideways racing and dealt with the crush brought on by ground effects by compressing and rebounding like balloons.

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The last of the no-names: To make a seventies F1 grid, you had to do two things: build a car from aluminum and fiberglass and buy a Cosworth DFV V-8. The era had dominating elites like Ferrari and Lotus, but every iconic name was countered with obscure entries like Bellasi, Connew, Token, and Trojan. Call it kit cars at racing's highest level.

Anything goes: Slick tires, wings, turbocharging, and ground effects all were in their infancy during the era, and seriously out-there innovations abounded. From six-wheeled cars like the Tyrrell P34 (Top of Page) to the vacuum-powered downforce of a Brabham BT46B, almost nothing was off-limits, and millions of new fans were drawn in.